Eating to heal - My top 5 inspiring Food Sites

This year, I have been on a journey to heal my body. Part of this process has been about rethinking what I eat and the way I eat. Whilst I have happily enjoyed trying new style of food and cooking, the family has not embraced it all. We've had some hits (homemade pot noodles) and some misses (beetroot brownies). Junior Hoges still begs me to buy white bread for his lunch box. But I have found that if I plan and organise my meals and shopping lists, I can cook up some really delicious lunch box alternatives. 

One of my biggest learning journeys has been to start eliminating foods that are acidic and contribute to inflammation within the body. To my dismay, coffee is highly acidic. I love coffee and have an extremely well established relationship with my caffeine habit, sometimes having up to 3, double shot coffees a day! I know this is not good for me. I have cut back to just one a day after deciding to pay close attention to how I feel after drinking coffee. What I discovered was that I actually felt a bit crap. Deflated. Irritable. That 2nd or 3rd cup lost it's meaning, it's specialness. I now choose to have a glass of water or peppermint tea when I begin to feel that old habit tickling me.

Practising mindfulness with what we eat takes time. You have to choose to slow down and think about what you eat and how you eat it. Breaking sugar and coffee habits are challenging, especially on those hard days when you may be feeling more tired, or more pain, or more grumpy than usual. Food or drink seems to be the best way to comfort. But putting crap into your body only gives you a quick fix, when really a nourishing bowl of soup and a big glass of lemon water will go a long way to healing you physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

I have found much guidance and inspiration through various websites, blogs, naturopaths, mums and authors. Whilst I do not subscribe to any one diet or way of eating, I rather choose to eat intuitively and by what works for me and my family. I try to grow my own and source local produce (easy when you live in a beautiful country town with so much locally grown and farmed produce on your doorstep) and make my own foods from scratch. Muffins, cakes, slices, breads, stocks, broths etc. Where I can't make my own, I try to buy organic and read the ingredients for nasty additive numbers and sugar levels. It may take a little longer, but this is a much more mindful way of eating and ultimately is more enjoyable and healing for the body.

Here is my top 5 Inspiring Food Sites:

Real Food Revival

Well Nourished

Wholefood Mama

Kris Carr

Whole Food Simply

Clear your mind. Make a cup of tea, sit down with a pen and paper and visit these sites. Read, explore and make a list of recipes and ingredients and ideas that appeal to you and your family and make a plan for a more mindful approach to eating. 

I must also make a mention that I visit Jamie Oliver often too. 

Nic Nurtures

Homemade Pot Noodles, for when you are super busy and need an easy nutritious meal

Turbo likes his homemade pot noodle 'plain'. I don't mind because all the nutrients comes from the bone broth

16 days till Christmas, already! Where has that time gone and where have I been? I certainly have not been paying much attention to Nic Nurtures blog. Time seems to have sped up and reflecting on the past few weeks looks like a bit of a blur with loads of coffee and catch ups.

SO what have I been doing? I've been super busy with my massage business, catching up on admin and book keeping and inducting and orientating my new employee. Oh and doing the laundry. On top of my own mountain of family washing, there is the 30 plus massage towels that needs washing each week. I'll be glad when I can hand that over to my new Massage Therapist in the New Year. 

We've had trips to Perth, and 7 year old Birthdays and Christmas Party's and functions. The Corporate Lawn Balls season has started again, so that means that Mr Man is out from 4pm till 8.30pm on a Wednesday evening. I make this our 'easy dinner' night. As you should on a hump day. I make Homemade Pot Noodle.

Ever since I decided to cut back on dairy a couple of weeks ago, I have been paying even closer attention to the foods that I put into my body and the foods we eat as a family. And with this comes a synchronicity of information needed at the right time; like stumbling upon Well Nourished and discovering the fab local ladies behind Real Food Revival.

I have have been embracing the bone broth concept and making litres of the stuff each week. I use it to cook Baby P's vegetable purees, in place of stock in risottos, frozen cubes as stock cubes, in soups and now for my pot noodle. The kids love squiggly noodles, and I love the fact they are getting so much gut loving nutrients from the humble bowl. 

Here is my take on the Homemade Pot Noodle:

4 cups of bone broth 

3 packets of dried squiggly egg noodles

3 garlic cloves crushed

2cm piece of ginger grated

2 carrots finely diced

1 cup of frozen peas

1 cup of corn kernels (fresh is best, but frozen works too)

1/4 cabbage shredded

a good lug of soy soy (to taste)

a good lug of sweet chilli sauce (to taste)

Heat your bone broth in a large wok or saucepan. When boiling, add your noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, carrots, peas and corn, cook for another 2 minutes. Add cabbage and soy and sweet chilli sauce, simmer for 1 minute. 

Serve in large bowls with a fork and spoon. This amount serves 2 adults and 2 children well.

So there you have it. Easy, nourishing Homemade Pot Noodle. Keep some bone broth in your freezer and you will always have an easy meal on hand.

Nic Nurtures

Another great muffin

This morning I woke up to yet another morning of not having prepared the kids lunches the night before. We've had a busy weekend and there was none of our usual Sunday baking and food prep for the week. Fortunately the two boys were already up, dressed and fed. Baby P was sound asleep after her 5am feed and play. 

I made myself a double shot soy flat white and stared into the cupboard. It was bare. Well, full of food but bare of home baked goodies. This is what I created, from scratch off the top of my head, and they are delicious!

Carrot cake muffins

2 cups of spelt wholewheat flour

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract

2 eggs

200ml coconut oil

1 large carrot, 2 purple carrots, coarsely grated

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and prepare your muffin tins.

Sift all your dry ingredients into a bowl and stir through sugar. 

In another bowl, whisk eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir in carrot.

Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix.

Spoon mix into muffin tins, bake for 25 minutes.

These taste so good! Moist muffins, crunchy tops, so yum and easy to make.

Nic Nurtures x

Baking, making, eating

It always feels good to start the week off right with good food. 

1. Lucky Almond and Chia Choc Chip cookies

2. Gluten free banana and blueberry muffins with sneaky avocado

3. Sweet potato, zucchini and pumpkin slice 

4. Cacao rough balls

5. Chicken and vegetable soup

6. Chia choc pudding

We had a lovely Sunday spent at home. Junior had a friend over and Turbo busied himself with a marathon Lego building Fest in his room. Baby P slept well during the day or was happy to chill out on the floor watching her mummy and daddy busy in the kitchen.

It was a reasonably hiccup free day, except for the quick trip to the hospital after Turbo got hit in the head with a cricket bat by his brother. It was an accident, of course, and fortunately, the cut on his eyelid looked A LOT worse than what it was. Funny though, I was immediately taken back to when I was 6 and got hit in the head with a cricket bat by my own older brother. I wanted to be wicky. I stood way too close. My injury was pretty bad, a deep cut to my left eyebrow resulting in stitches and panicked parents. And a broken cricket bat...

Never the less, it was a very productive day in the kitchen. Mr Man even made chicken terryaki and vegetarian nori rolls for lunch. And a HUGE pot of popcorn was popped on the stove for the kids lunch boxes and snacks throughout the week. 

Nic Nurtures x